LONG BEACH, Calif. (Rocket Lab PR) — Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”), a leading launch and space systems company, today confirmed that the Photon Lunar spacecraft has successfully completed a sixth on-orbit burn of its HyperCurie engine, bringing the CAPSTONE satellite more near the Moon. Lunar photon apogee – the point at which the spacecraft is furthest from Earth during its orbit – is now 43,297 miles (69,680 km). This sixth burn was originally planned to be two burns, but Rocket Lab’s space systems team determined that the HyperCurie engine would be capable of performing a single maneuver to achieve the same delta-v, so they combined the two. The next and final burn is designed to put CAPSTONE on a lunar transfer ballistic trajectory to the Moon traveling at 24,500 mph (39,400 km/h) to break free from Earth orbit. This latest maneuver is currently scheduled to take place on July 4. After being separated from the lunar photon, CAPSTONE will use its own thrust and the Sun’s gravity to navigate the rest of the way to the Moon, a four-month journey that will see CAPSTONE reach lunar orbit on November 13. ABOUT THE CAPSTONE: Designed and built by Terran Orbital, owned and operated by Advanced Space on behalf of NASA, the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) satellite will be the first spacecraft to test the Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) around Moon. . This is the same orbit intended for NASA’s Gateway, a multipurpose station in lunar orbit that will provide essential support for long-term lunar missions by astronauts as part of the Artemis program. CAPSTONE was successfully launched into space on Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle on June 28.
